"Fictional Knowing"

Writing as speculative thinking.

Earlier this week, nearing the end of class, I asked the grad students to embark on a writing activity where they practiced whatever they understood as “fictional knowing,” following a brief collective listening from Renee Gladman’s Bagley Wright lecture, “Lines Into Grasses.” While speaking about the Ravicka series, Gladman offers: “…since we are in fiction, giving evidence of the fictional unknown, allows us to make up our own fictional knowing.” So I wished to discuss what is fictional knowing?